The simplicity of Recamán’s sequence belies the beauty of this complex pattern. From red, to white, to blue, each arc spans a greater interval: the first, at the very bottom, advances one step; the second, two steps; the third, three; and so on… only once we reach the fourth arc does it have the chance to retreat into a void.
And so it continues, only reversing if it lands in an empty slot, otherwise marching eternally forward. Coincidentally, the resultant spirals map to the idiosyncrasies of our timekeeping. Here, it displays the viewer's local time.
Tracking the blue spiral, an orbiting dial captures minutes much like a regular timepiece with each of the twelve loops additionally representing an hour—one can tell the time from a single point. The 14-looped orange-white spiral has a similar dual meaning, representing the hour of the day with its angle and the day of the week with its loops. The peculiarities of the sequence dictate that hours spiral outwards whereas the week circles inwards, with midnight Monday at the very top.
The lunar phase tracks upwards along the lone white arc, while the sun's position is mirrored on the outside of the double-looped orange spiral—taking a full day to complete a single revolution. The sun rises in the “east”, reaches its zenith at noon, and sets to the “west” over the horizon of the overlapping spiral.